A
swelling behind the knee that is composed of a membrane-lined sac
filled with synovial fluid and is associated with certain joint
disorders (as arthritis). [Merriam]

Banti's Syndrome / Disease

A disease characterized by congestion and enlargement of the spleen;
accompanied by anemia or cirrhosis. [Wordnet]

A disorder
characterized by congestion and great enlargement of the spleen
usually accompanied by anemia, leukopenia, and cirrhosis of the
liver called also Banti's syndrome. [Merriam Webster]

Example from an 1928 death certificate
from Alabama:

Barbiers

A vernacular
Indian term, of unknown derivation. It demotes a chronic
affection, prevalent in India, and almost universally confounded
by nosologists with beriberi. [Hoblyn1855]

A
disease of India and the Malabar coast; a peculiar species of
Palsy. [Thomas1875]

A variety
of paralysis peculiar to India and the Malabar coast considered
by many to be the same as beriberi in chronic form.
[Webster1913]

Barkers

A name given to the
victims of a religious hysterical epidemic which spread through
the United States in 1798-1805. The subjects used to fling
themselves on the ground howling and barking like dogs.
[Tuke1892]

Barking Cough

A bark like cough of children, seen in croup
and other conditions. [Dorland]

Barrel Chest

A chest permanently resembling the shape of a barrel, i.e., with
increased anteroposterior diameter, roughly equaling the lateral
diameter; usually with some degree of kyphosis; seen in cases of
emphysema. [CancerWEB]

Bay Sore

A disease considered
by Dr. Mosely as true cancer, commencing with an ulcer. It is
endemic at the Bay of Honduras. [Hoblyn1855]

A spasmodic rigidity
of the lower limbs, etc.; an acute disease occurring in India,
and commonly considered the same as Barbiers, - but the latter
is a chronic disease. The word beriberi is, in all probability,
derived from the reduplication of the Hindu word beri,
signifying irons or fetters fastened to the legs of criminals,
elephants, etc. A person afflicted with this disease is
literally :fettered." [Thomas1875]

An acute disease occurring in India, characterized
by multiple inflammatory changes in the nerves, producing great
muscular debility, a painful rigidity of the limbs, and cachexy.
[Webster1913]

A disease caused by a deficiency of thiamine,
endemic in eastern and southern Asia and characterized by neurological
symptoms, cardiovascular abnormalities, and edema. [Heritage].

Wet Beriberi

A form of Beriberi marked by cardiac failure and edema, but without
extensive nervous system involvement. [Dorland]

Biggar

A disease of Bengal, remarkable for the intensity
and danger of the cerebral symptoms. [Dunglison1874]

Bile or Gall

A fluid which is
secreted by th eliver into the gall bladder, and from thence
passes into the intestines, in order to promote digestion.
[Buchan1798]

Bilharzia / Bilharziasis

An infection with a parasite of the genus Schistosoma; common in
the tropics and Far East; symptoms depend on the part of the body
infected; Schistosomiasis. [Heritage]

A term very generally
made use of, to express diseases which arise from too copious a
secretion of bile: thus bilious colic, bilious diarrhea, bilious
fever, etc. [Hooper1829].

That which relates to bile, contains bile,
or is produced by bile. An epithet given to certain constitutions
and diseases, which are believed to be the effect of superabundance
of the biliary secretion; as bilious fever, but often used, without
any definite idea, as regards the bile, being attached to it. Biliousness
is the state of being bilious. [Dunglison1874]

Bilious Fever

When a continual, remitting, or intermitting
fever is accompanied with a frequent or copious evacuation of bile,
either by vomit or stool, the fever is denominated bilious. [Buchan1785].

The common remittent fever of summer and autumn;
generally supposed to be owing to, or connected with, derangement
of the biliary system. [Dunglison1855].

Typhoid fever, Remittent fever or simple gastritis.
[Appleton1904].

A term loosely applied to certain intestinal
and malarial fevers. See typhus. [Thomas1907].

An ephemeral fever
attended with symptoms of gastric catarrh and excessive
secretion of bile. [Stedman 1918].

Example from an 1828 death certificate
from Pennsylvania:

Example from an 1868 death certificate
from West Virginia:

Bilious Pneumonia

Inflammation of the lungs, accompanied by gastric fever, and not
uncommonly by typhoid symptoms. [Dunglison1874]

Bilious Remittent Fever

Yellow Fever. [Dunglison1874].

One type of malarial
fever, known as bilious remittent, has long been recognized on
account of the bilious vomiting, gastric distress, sometimes
bilious diarrhea, sometime constipation, which accompany the
recurring exacerbations. It is further distinguished by the
pronounced icteric or, rather, reddish yellow or saffron tint of
the skin and sclera; a tint derived, probably, not from
absorption of bile as in obstructive jaundice but from modified
hemoglobin free in the blood or deposited in the derma. They are
not specially nor directly dangerous themselves, but they result
usually in profound anemia, and are often but the prelude to
chronic malarial saturation, bad health and invaliding.
[Manson1898].

Archaic term for relapsing fever characterized by bilious vomiting
and diarrhea. [CivilWarMed].

Example from an 1883 death certificate
from Pennsylvania:

Bilious Typhoid Fever

Relapsing fever with jaundice. [Appleton1904]

Biliousness

Gastric distress caused by a disorder of the liver or gall bladder.
[Wordnet]

A corroding or sloughing ulcer; esp. a spreading gangrenous ulcer
or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth; Noma. [Webster]

Black Death

The name given in
Germany and the North of Europe to an Oriental plague which
occurred in the fourteenth century, characterized by
inflammatory boils and black spots on the skin, indicating
putrid decomposition. In many of its characters this pestilence
resembled the present bobo plague, complicated with pneumonia
and hemorrhages. [Thomas1875]

A form of bubonic
plague, caused by
Yersinia pestis, that was pandemic throughout Europe and much of
Asia in the 14th century. [Heritage].

Cerebro-spinal fever or epidemic cerebro-spinal
meningitis, popularly called spotted fever, is an infectious disease
occurring sporadically or in epidemics. This disease was not recognized
until the 19th century. In Great Britain it first showed itself
in the Irish workhouses in 1846, where it was known as the black
death or malignant-purpuric fever. [Britannica1911].

Black Disease

The common name of
more than one disease, as of black jaundice, and of melæna.
[Leland1889]

Black Dog

Hypochondriasis. [Dunglison1874].

Depression. This term was
used by Sir Winston Churchill to describe his depression.

An acute tick-borne illness caused by the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsii.
The disease is characterized by sudden onset of headache, chills
and fever which can persist for 2-3 weeks. A characteristic rash
appears on the extremities and trunk about the 4th day of illness;
Visceral Leishmaniasis. [CancerWEB]

Black Leg

Purpura Haemorrhagica. The spots are
circular, and of different sizes; often in stripes or patches,
irregularly scattered over the thighs, arms and trunk; with
occasional hemorrhage from the mouth, nostrils, or viscera, and
great debility and depression of spirits. Black Leg is one form
of this disease. It occurs particular among the lumberman of
Canada, and seems to be dependent on the coarse diet used by
them. [Dunglison 1874].

Black Lion

A term given to a sloughing syphilitic ulcer, under which the British
soldiers suffered greatly in Portugal. [Dunglison1874]

Erysipelas: The term Black Rose was used
interchangeably with Erysipelas in a letter by Dr. Livingstone
in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly
Record of 1874.

Example from an 1890 death record
from Michigan:

Black Sickness

Kala-Azar

Black Tongue

A fever which prevailed in the western states
in the winter of 1842-3; probably typhoid fever. According to some,
an epidemic erysipelas. [Dunglison1855].

Erysipelas in the
United States. [Erysipelas and Child-Bed Fever, Minor, 1874].

Erysipelas of the
fauces. [A manual of modern surgery: general and operative.
Chalmers Da Costa, 1894].

A disease of dogs similar to human pellagra
and due to niacin deficiency. [CancerWEB]

Example from an 1879 death certificate
from West Virginia:

Black Vomit

This is one of the fatal symptoms of yellow
fever, it being a very rare case for a patient to recover after
its occurrence. [Hooper1843].

The throwing up, in
certain fevers, of a dark colored fluid resembling coffee
grounds. This fluid consists chiefly of blood changed by morbid
secretions of the stomach. It is one of the most fatal symptoms
attending yellow fever, which in Spanish is often called simply
El vomito ("the vomit"), or El vomito negro ("the black vomit").
[Thomas1875]

A copious vomiting of dark-colored matter; or the substance so discharged;
one of the most fatal symptoms in
yellow fever. [CancerWEB].

A hard, painful, inflamed tumor, which, on
suppuration, discharges pus, mixed with blood, and discloses a small
fibrous mass of dead tissue, called the core. [Webster1913].

A painful, circumscribed pus-filled inflammation
of the skin and subcutaneous tissue usually caused by a local staphylococcal
infection. Also called furuncle. [Heritage]

Bone Shave

Sciatica; neuralgia femoropoplites.

Boo Boo

A name applied in the
Sandwich Islands to a kind of fever which attacks only new
comers, characterized by great depression of spirits and moaning
(whence the name); probably a subacute gastritis. Written also
boubou. [Appleton1904]

Irreversible brain damage and loss of brain function, as evidenced
by cessation of breathing and other vital reflexes, unresponsiveness
to stimuli, absence of muscle activity, and a flat electroencephalogram
for a specific length of time. [Dorland]

Brain Fever

Cerebral fever,
phrenitis. [Dunglison1874].

Meningitis.
[NGSQ1988]

Cerebral meningitis.
[Stedman 1918].

Inflammation of the
brain or meninges, as in encephalitis or meningitis. [Heritage].

Of, relating to,
or induced by a mental disorder; insane or mad. [Heritage]

Chronic Brain Wasting

A form of
mental disorder characterized mainly by confusion, failure of
the memory, inability to concentrate the attention, and general
inertia. [Appleton1904]

Braking

Vomiting, vomiturition. [Dunglison1874]

Breach

A
hernia; a rupture.

Breakbone /Fever

An acute mosquito-borne viral illness of sudden onset that usually
follows a benign course with headache, fever, prostration, severe
joint and muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy) and rash.
The presence (the "dengue triad") of fever, rash, and headache (and
other pains) is particularly characteristic. Better known as
dengue, the disease
is endemic throughout the tropics and subtropics. It goes by other
names including dandy fever. Victims of dengue often have contortions
due to the intense joint and muscle pain. Hence, the name "breakbone
fever." Slaves in the West Indies who contracted dengue were said
to have "dandy fever" because of their postures and gait. [Medicinenet]

Inflammation of the
bronchi, or ramifications of the trachea. It is known by the
vernacular terms, bronchial inflammation, inflammatory catarrh,
bastard peripneumony, and suffocative catarrh. [Hoblyn1855]

Inflammation, acute or chronic, of the bronchial tubes or any part
of them. [Webster].

"bronchitis" was first used in popular English
literature: sometime before 1865. [Webster]

Example from an 1858 death certificate
from West Virginia:

Example from an 1887 death certificate
from England:

Bronchitis Capillaris

When bronchitis affects the smaller tubes,
it is termed capillary bronchitis. [Dunglison 1874].

Example from
an 1862 Church Record in Münster, Switzerland

Capillary Bronchitis

Bronchitis

Catarrhal Bronchitis

Bronchitis

Fetid Bronchitis

Chronic bronchitis with fetid expectoration. [Dunglison1868]

Fibrinous Bronchitis

Inflammation of the bronchial mucous membrane, accompanied by a
fibrinous exudation, which often forms a cast of the bronchial tree
with severe obstruction of air flow. [CancerWEB]

This disease is
marked by a tumour on the fore-part of the neck, and seated
between the trachea and skin. In general, it has been supposed
principally to occupy the thyroid gland. We are given to
understand that it is a very common disorder in Derbyshire; but
its occurrence is by no means frequent in other parts of Great
Britain, or in Ireland. Among inhabitants of the Alps, and other
mountainous countries bordering thereon, it is a disease very
often met with, and is there known by the name of goitre.
[Hooper1843].

An indolent swelling
of the thyroid gland; goitre; tracheocele. Called also
Derbyshire neck. [Thomas1875].

An enlargement of the
thyroid glands. The whole gland may be swollen, or only the
center, or either side, more frequently the right. This often
produces scanty menstruation or profuse leucorrhoea.
[Wilson1893]

Broncho-Pneumonia

A form of
inflammation of the lungs which commences in the bronchioles and
spreads to the surrounding lung tissue; synonymous with lobular
pneumonia. [Hoblyn 1900].

Is inflammation of the lung tissue, associated with catarrh and
with marked evidences of inflammation of bronchial membranes, often
chronic; -- also called lobular pneumonia, from its affecting single
lobules at a time. [Webster].

Example from an 1893 death certificate
from England:

Bronchorrhea

An increased
secretion of mucus from the air passages, accompanied or not by
inflammation, a gleet, as it were, of the pulmonary mucous
membrane, Pneumorrhea. When excessive, it may constitute
phthisis pituitosa. [Dunglison 1868].

Bronze John

Texas term for Yellow Fever; commonly called Yellow Jack. [Farmer1905].

Texas term for Yellow Fever [Blaschke1907].

Listed in the 1909 Manual of the International Causes of Death 2nd
Revision under the same heading as
Addison’s Disease.

A name given by the natives of the African
coast to yellow fever. [Thomas1875]

Bulimia

An eating disorder, common especially among young women of normal
or nearly normal weight that is characterized by episodic binge
eating and followed by feelings of guilt, depression, and self-condemnation.
It is often associated with measures taken to prevent weight gain,
such as self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, dieting, or
fasting. Also called bulimarexia, bulimia nervosa. [Heritage]

Bulla

A bleb or
blister, consisting of a portion of the epidermis detached from
the skin by the infiltration beneath it of watery fluid, the
result of liquefaction-necrosis. [Gould1916]

Burking

Murder, especially by
suffocation, committed for the purpose of obtaining material for
dissection; so called from the practice of one Burke, of Dublin.
Also called Burkism. [Appleton1904]

Burnt Holes

A variety of Rupia,
popularly known in Ireland under this name; and not unfrequent
there amongst the ill-fed children of the poor. [Dunglison1868]

Bursitis

Inflammation of a bursa, especially in the shoulder, elbow, or knee
joint. [Heritage]